Bloomberg Promises to Streamline Restaurant Application Process (As Long as They Don't Use Salt?)

In his State of the City speech yesterday, grand poobah Michael Bloomberg made a promise to aspiring restaurant owners--and for once, it didn't have anything to do with what they can and can not serve.

As it stands, the 4,000 restaurants that open each year in New York must go through a lengthy bureaucratic process that takes them from the Department of Environmental Protection to Department of Buildings, to the Health Department, and so on--a Kafka-esque process of endless paperwork and long waits for permits.

Bloomberg said yesterday that this year he will streamline the restaurant application process, an improvement that, he claims, will allow restaurants to open 30 days earlier than they otherwise would.

This makes sense, given Bloomberg's purported love of businesses and the free market, but the proof will be in the pudding.